dubois_love | The Best Character on NBC's Medium (3/27/07) (Reply)

It's the Husband, Joe

I've seen almost every episode of NBC's Medium since it debuted last year. The show succeeds because it integrates a crazy premise (a woman's psychic dreams help her solve crimes) with a completely normal family life. The character who holds everything together is Joe Dubois, portrayed by Jake Weber. He is the "perfect" husband of the title character, Allison. His job is to keep the family running while serving as a sounding board for his wife's dreams. The show typically begins like most Law & Order and CSI shows, as someone is getting killed or severely harmed. Instead of the cops showing up to clean up the mess, we see Allison waking up from a dream.

Unfortunately, this doesn't mean the crime is all a dream. Joe usually has to help Allison interpret the dream. Either the crime happened in the past, or it will happen in the future. After getting some advice from Joe, Allison goes to her job as a consultant with the Phoenix Police Department. There, she helps to solve (or prevent) the crime.

Joe is a great character because of his reaction to his wife's special gift. He accepts and understands the way she is, and he tries to calm Allison down and figure out what the dream means. At the same time, Joe is often confused and exasperated by his wife's reaction to her dreams. He is forced to live in the real world, while his wife is literally interacting with ghosts.

We also see the realistic aspect of Joe and Allison's life. When they aren't talking in bed about Allison's latest dream, we see them making breakfast and carting their girls off to school. Allison (Patricia Arquette) is a strong character, too, but she is always busy dealing with her nighttime visions. Joe is almost an extension of the audience, as he wonders how Allison's dreams relate to real life.

Honorable mention goes to the oldest daughter, Ariel (played by Sofia Vassilieva). She is very believable as a moody, confused 13-year-old who occasionally experiences the same type of dreams as her mother and fights with her younger sister. When she was younger, she played the title role in "Eloise at the Plaza" and "Eloise at Christmastime" along with Julie Andrews.

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